Seeing how your charity works

In 2009, I hopped on board with charity: water, an organization that brings clean water to people all over the world in developing countries.

Their message just resonated with me. For me, walking a few feet to my kitchen sink for a glass of clean, safe water was something I completely took for granted.

The idea that women and children walked up to 8 hours round trip for a few gallons of water that was neither clean nor safe really did strike a chord of "I can't even imagine that." What an embarrassment of riches my life truly is.

I shared their mission and launched a campaign and you, my blog readers stepped up in insanely big numbers to give what you could. Together, we raised over $8,700 for clean water.

Then a few weeks ago, I received the photos of the wells that you helped to build. We funded two projects in Ethiopia, serving the needs of 565 people.

There were two communities where the wells were built. The first was the Mai Adi Village. You can read about the work by clicking here.

The second project is in the Mai Tsatse Village. You can see more about that project by clicking here.

I just wanted to share this with you and express my sincerest gratitude for the support you gave. There are countless charities and causes in our country and beyond that deserve our support. When you have the means to contribute either time or money to them, well, I think that demonstrates the best that the human spirit has to offer.

I love that there are a few communities halfway across the world may not know what a scrapbooker is, but they at least know it's a group of people with a heck of a lot of heart and generosity.

How absolutely cool is it that the plaque actually says “scrapbookers for clean water”???!!!! It makes me proud that I gave to see people actually using it. Your broad reach allowed this to happen… when are you going to do it again?

We lived in Europe for a few years and I’ll never forget one of the first social situations I was in. I had a bunch of British women over to my place to share a meal and whilst “washing up” afterward (also known in the US as doing the dishes), one of my new British friends commented, quite frankly, “you MUST be wealthy – stuffing money in the wash hole.” Perplexed, I looked at her as she reached over and hit the faucet off. “We can spot an American a mile away as we watch them wash their hands, dishes, anything, really. The tap just runs and runs.” Needless to say, I was mortified and embarrassed. To this day, I do not leave the ‘tap’ running – not when brushing my teeth, washing up, doing dishes, anything. Nor do our kids.

Sometimes it takes a lesson like this and like your ‘aha’ moment to change lives. I think that plaque is the coolest thing ever. It’s the whole ‘walk-the-talk’ thing. Your blog is changing lives and behaviors!

I remember giving something like $129.00 & then thinking – oh maybe that was too much on the credit card – but it was worth every penny – seeing that picture of the well made me cry – scrapbookers are awesome ! Thank you so much for organizing that project & for posting the result – I still vividly remember the video about why the clean water was needed – the puddles – powerful stuff. I’m going to show My daughter tomorrow – she remembers that video too & mentions it from time to time. So yay – way to go Cathy!